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<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'"><span style="font-size: 14pt"><span style="color: #FF0000">Jockey closing Lucea factory
Near 600 Jamaicans to lose jobs</span></span></span>
BY KERIL WRIGHT Sunday Observer staff reporter
[email protected]
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Lucea, Hanover - For the past six years, Sharleen Doeman worked at the Jockey International apparel factory in Lucea, Hanover as a machine operator.
Last Thursday, Doeman was among the American company's close to 600 employees, most of them single mothers, who were informed that they would be out of a job by December this year, as the firm intends to close the factory as part of a phase-out of operations at its Cooleemee, North Carolina knitting plant in the United States.
"We received the letters Thursday telling us how we would be paid," said 38-year-old Doeman. "Some shock, some a jump up, but some nuh have no money fi get."
Doeman, who has two sick parents to care for, said she would be seeking to get some training in hospitality in order to seek employment at the 901-room Spanish-owned Fiesta Hotel at Point in the parish. The hotel is expected to generate hundreds of jobs when it opens and forms the basis for a tourism product between Negril and Montego Bay, two of the island's famous tourist resorts.
Doeman said that although she expects to get some severance pay, it would likely go quickly, given high food prices and her other daily expenses. She said she would therefore be seeking to invest in training to make herself employable.
Jockey International Inc made its decision public a day after informing workers. A news release from the company late Friday evening said that Jockey's plants in Costa Rica and Honduras along with Jockey's contractors in that region would absorb the sewing production from the Jamaica plant.
The announcement comes a mere eight months after the company closed its sewing plant in Sandy Bay, Hanover that had been in operation for almost 10 years.
According to the company, that decision - which led to 600 jobs being made redundant - was influenced by a shift in consumer demand towards newer, higher engineered non-cotton products, resulting in a need for the firm to rebalance its internal production of core products.
In its release on Friday, the company's president and chief operating officer, Edward Emma, said the textile operation would require substantial capital investment if it were to remain competitive.
He said Jockey had therefore decided to shift resources to ongoing design and development initiatives in partnership with US yarn suppliers and Central American fabric makers who have demonstrated an ability to make jockey-quality fabrics in modern facilities.
The closure of its North Carolina plant, which it said would take effect next March, would affect 210 employees.
Marion Smith, Jockey's vice president of manufacturing, said the company regretted the impact the closure would have on its employees in Jamaica and would provide severance pay, benefits continuation and job skills training assistance to all impacted workers.
Efforts by the Sunday Observer yesterday to contact Tom Ford, who is in charge of the local Jockey operations, were unsuccessful. General manager at the Lucea plant, Dalton Taylor, said he would not comment on the issue but noted that Ford would be available to speak on Monday.
In the meantime, 33-year-old Lorraine Haughton, another machine operator at the Lucea plant, said she has no alternative than to seek employment at the nearby Fiesta Hotel. "Mi have to try and find another job now, but mi know it going to be rough," said Haughton, who has three children.
Haughton had worked at Jockey's Sandy Bay factory for almost nine years, but has been working at the Lucea plant for just over a month now. As such, she has very little severance pay to receive.
Luckily for her, she received training in Housekeeping under a programme sponsored by Jockey after the closure of its Sandy Bay operations last year.
About 24 women, she said, were sent by Jockey for training at the Kenilworth HEART Academy in the parish last year. The women received training in Housekeeping, Food and Nutrition and Restaurant Services, said Haughton.
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Near 600 Jamaicans to lose jobs</span></span></span>
BY KERIL WRIGHT Sunday Observer staff reporter
[email protected]
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Lucea, Hanover - For the past six years, Sharleen Doeman worked at the Jockey International apparel factory in Lucea, Hanover as a machine operator.
Last Thursday, Doeman was among the American company's close to 600 employees, most of them single mothers, who were informed that they would be out of a job by December this year, as the firm intends to close the factory as part of a phase-out of operations at its Cooleemee, North Carolina knitting plant in the United States.
"We received the letters Thursday telling us how we would be paid," said 38-year-old Doeman. "Some shock, some a jump up, but some nuh have no money fi get."
Doeman, who has two sick parents to care for, said she would be seeking to get some training in hospitality in order to seek employment at the 901-room Spanish-owned Fiesta Hotel at Point in the parish. The hotel is expected to generate hundreds of jobs when it opens and forms the basis for a tourism product between Negril and Montego Bay, two of the island's famous tourist resorts.
Doeman said that although she expects to get some severance pay, it would likely go quickly, given high food prices and her other daily expenses. She said she would therefore be seeking to invest in training to make herself employable.
Jockey International Inc made its decision public a day after informing workers. A news release from the company late Friday evening said that Jockey's plants in Costa Rica and Honduras along with Jockey's contractors in that region would absorb the sewing production from the Jamaica plant.
The announcement comes a mere eight months after the company closed its sewing plant in Sandy Bay, Hanover that had been in operation for almost 10 years.
According to the company, that decision - which led to 600 jobs being made redundant - was influenced by a shift in consumer demand towards newer, higher engineered non-cotton products, resulting in a need for the firm to rebalance its internal production of core products.
In its release on Friday, the company's president and chief operating officer, Edward Emma, said the textile operation would require substantial capital investment if it were to remain competitive.
He said Jockey had therefore decided to shift resources to ongoing design and development initiatives in partnership with US yarn suppliers and Central American fabric makers who have demonstrated an ability to make jockey-quality fabrics in modern facilities.
The closure of its North Carolina plant, which it said would take effect next March, would affect 210 employees.
Marion Smith, Jockey's vice president of manufacturing, said the company regretted the impact the closure would have on its employees in Jamaica and would provide severance pay, benefits continuation and job skills training assistance to all impacted workers.
Efforts by the Sunday Observer yesterday to contact Tom Ford, who is in charge of the local Jockey operations, were unsuccessful. General manager at the Lucea plant, Dalton Taylor, said he would not comment on the issue but noted that Ford would be available to speak on Monday.
In the meantime, 33-year-old Lorraine Haughton, another machine operator at the Lucea plant, said she has no alternative than to seek employment at the nearby Fiesta Hotel. "Mi have to try and find another job now, but mi know it going to be rough," said Haughton, who has three children.
Haughton had worked at Jockey's Sandy Bay factory for almost nine years, but has been working at the Lucea plant for just over a month now. As such, she has very little severance pay to receive.
Luckily for her, she received training in Housekeeping under a programme sponsored by Jockey after the closure of its Sandy Bay operations last year.
About 24 women, she said, were sent by Jockey for training at the Kenilworth HEART Academy in the parish last year. The women received training in Housekeeping, Food and Nutrition and Restaurant Services, said Haughton.
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